Mikaela heard about Summit over a year before stepping on campus in Manitou Springs, CO. As a budding Marketing and Journalism student at Dordt College, Mikaela loves writing and connecting with people.
“I think really, during my freshman year (in college), I have had more of a secular worldview than I had originally thought. And coming to Summit, I have really learned how the Christian conservative worldview is so true. Even though I claimed to be a Christian conservative, I still believed that if a woman was raped or had something traumatic happen to her then abortion is okay in that circumstance.” One lecture in particular stood out to Mikaela. During his “Case for Life” lecture, Scott Klusendorf talked about abortion in the case of rape. Klusendorf asked the students two questions:
- Would you want the death penalty given to the rapist?
- Would you murder the woman that has conceived the child?
When the students answered “no” to those questions, Klusendorf asked the students, why then, would it be okay to murder the baby, who is the most innocent of all? This discussion put things into perspective for Mikaela and helped correct her own views on the pro-life position. “I was like WOW, that kind of just struck my heart, and that was what just kinda flipped the switch for me, and my viewpoint really changed.” Summit Student Conferences exist to help students think through their convictions and answer hard questions. Mikaela’s thoughts and ideas about important cultural topics have been challenged during her time at Summit as she has engaged with like-minded peers in small groups, learned from Christian leaders during lectures and open forums, and explored answers to hard questions about her faith, purpose, and identity. “I had struggled with identity all through college, and I thought that Christians just always pushed their faith on others, and I wanted to be someone who believed my own thing and just talked about it at church. But at Summit I have learned that sports, theater, and other things don’t define who I am. Christ in me is my identity. I don’t have everything figured out, but Summit has set in motion what is to come in my life. God is who makes me me, and Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and his wiping away all my sins have made me who I am today, and that’s why I am able to touch the lives of other people and proclaim his name!”
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